I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.

Recent sales: October

1. Yard sales: 1850$. I tried to unload as much as possible before the cold arrived. It was a lot of work, but I was pretty successful! Both my storage areas were mostly emptied of junk, with only a few suitcases of recent or favourite finds, as well as some larger pieces surviving the purge.

That’s pretty much it for yard sales until April, unless I end up selling at a local market or something. Either way, I made significantly more money yard sailing this year than ever before. I did the math last night and found that I made around 5500$, which is about twice what I made in 2015 (I don’t think I did the math for 2016, but I’d guess that the number was roughly the same as in 2015).

I’d say the main reason for this increase is the fact that I raised my prices, which were sometimes ridiculously low before. Over time I’ve learned more about what people are actually willing to pay for my junk, instead of charging what I personally would want to pay (which is next to nothing, since I’m kind of cheap and get so much for free anyways). I also found the process a little less overwhelming than in years past, and as a result I was less motivated to get rid of things as soon as possible.

We’ll see how the 2017 season goes. Perhaps the new garage space will help increase profits further, or at least add to the variety of things I’m willing to take.

2. Gold and silver scrap: 1200$. Another nice haul. I did well with that silver dish from a little while back, which earned me about 450$ on its own, but I had a decent collection of junk gold to melt as well.

3. Simonds saw tool: On eBay for 35$. This neat antique tool took a long time to sell. So did several other items on this list.

4. Series of Notman & Sons photos: On eBay for 125$. I figured these would go for a nice price! They were found as part of a great collection of old photos early in the summer. The Notman museum has record of these photos, and apparently they were part of a Junior League performance of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.”

5. Parker VP fountain pen: On eBay for 90$. It was in great condition. Found in Villeray.

6. Parker Vacumatic desk pens: On eBay for 90$. The ends looked to have been chewed on, but the barrels and nibs were in good condition. These will be part of a future blog post!

7. iPod Classic: On eBay for 50$. Found in NDG.

8. Canadair lot: On eBay for 50$. This was all from a spot in Villeray. I would guess that it’s now part of it an aviation collection.

9. Michael Kors handbag: On eBay for 30$. The first of two Michael Kors handbags that took forever to sell. At least both customers were very happy, and left good feedback.

10. Supertest service pins: On eBay for 60$. These didn’t take long to sell. Unfortunately, after the initial pile of quality junk I saw nothing else at that spot.

12. Michael Kors handbag #2: On eBay for 40$. It looked like it had barely been used, and even came with the receipt.

13. Herend Hungary dish: On eBay for 20$. Just a cute dish. Found in Outremont.

14. Lot of three vintage calculators: On eBay for 15$. None of these were particularly valuable on their own, so I listed them all together as a lot. Overall it was more hassle than it was worth, and next time this tier of vintage calculator will probably go into the yard sale bin.

15. Empty Grace cartridge box: On eBay for 30$. It’s not just watch boxes that have value. This one was made to hold a vintage high-end record player cartridge, and sold quickly once listed. Unfortunately I can’t find the picture on my computer.

16. Royale Ambree EdC: On eBay for 18$. I’m pretty sure this was my oldest eBay listing, though that lot of bullfighting ephemera is pretty close. It was probably online for 3 or 4 years, and I’m glad to not have to look at it ever again.

17. Vintage Ski-doo toque: On eBay for 35$. I listed this when the weather cooled down and it didn’t take long to sell. Found in Rosemont.

18. Expo 67 passport: On eBay for 30$. I find Expo 67 passports generally go for around 30-40$, assuming they’re in good condition and have a solid collection of stamps. This one had an old ginkgo leaf stuck between the pages.

19. French far-right literature: On eBay for 150$. More racist ephemera from that spot in Rosemont. It seems that people are buying it for research purposes, which is good.

20. Postcard lot: On eBay for 10$. This was a collection of vintage holiday / dumb joke cards. It was the last of lots I listed last year – the ones I organized by geographical region were much more popular.

21. Dresser: On Kijiji for 50$. Unexceptional but solid. Found with my mom on a run in St Michel.

22. Mirrors: On Kijiji for 50$. It took me a while to realize that these kinds of things might do well on Kijiji. The mirrors were quite old, and likely part of some long since replaced medicine cabinets. I still have the windows, and have added a few more to the collection since then. Both the mirrors and windows are great for upcycling or interior design projects.

23. Roto-toms: On Kijiji for 100$. The drums were nice, but the stands were in too rough of shape to be worth much. I threw them in with the drums as part of the deal. The chimes sold at one of my yard sales, I think for 20$.

Total: 4188$, 23876.50$ so far in 2017. If only every month could be so profitable. Now it’s time for me to listed a bunch of stuff on eBay in anticipation for winter, which is usually a great time for sales.

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13 thoughts on “Recent sales: October”

Great month! For sure you’ll be reaching the $25k mark by year’s end. Onward and upward, eh? Will next year’s goal be $30 or $35k? 🙂 Keep up the great work. Yard sale season will be upon us again soon enough.

I think you are amazing too.i think what you are doing is great. what camera do you use to take the pictures? also when you have time ,maybe you could do a post on your picture taking set up,what you use, camera, lights, etc.also advice on listing,selling,etc.

These days I take my photos either with my iPhone 5S or a Sony NEX-5N. The Sony (which I bought a while back for around 400$) is better for taking highly detailed photos, which is especially good for the group shots I like to do. The iPhone is pretty noob friendly and is useful for quick photos, photos on the go, and photos with low or weird light (with the Sony you have to adjust for these things manually, which I’m not that good at yet, but the iPhone does it automatically).

Maybe I’ll do that at some point. My photos have really improved since I got the Sony camera and my lightbox (I used to take everything outside, with mixed results).

My weakest photos now are the ones I take in my garage, since the lighting isn’t quite strong enough. They’re okay, but I’d like them to be better. Now that I have the bigger garage (starting January 1, if everything goes to plan) I may set up a larger photo studio / light box in there as well.

I am really inspired by your blog.I took out a beautiful ceramic skull candy bowl from the trash near Lionel Groulx metro this Sunday night.It compliments the décor in my apartment.Actually it was inside a plastic garbage bin so I doubt if someone else would have taken it.Who knows?Do you find skull candy bowls in the trash?

Love the Herend dish. The company is famous for their animals with fishnet patterns. The figurines sell for hundred(s). You never show pictures of glassware that you find. The mid century modern Iittala, Sasaki and Hoya brands are distinctive, valuable and heavy pieces.

The thing with glassware is that it’s usually broken by the time it reaches the trash, and generally people know to sell or donate it. So, to find it in good condition it needs to be well cared for beforehand, it needs to survive the trip to the curb, and you need the people throwing it out to not care whatsoever for its value. So, it’s pretty rare to find exceptional glass pieces in the trash. It’s not impossible though, I just need to get really lucky.

A fitting example is that time a few years back when I found boxes full of well packed teacups on the curb, many of which were by Aynsley and Paragon (ie: very nice!). They had been well cared for, and were likely tossed by someone who inherited then but didn’t appreciate them. Since then I’ve found very few notable pieces of china / teacups, especially not by brands like Aynsley and Paragon.

That being said I do find nice glasses and so on, but it’s usually kitschy stuff and not high end. It still has its place, and is great for yard sales but it doesn’t always make the blog.

Get what you are saying about breakage/ I have been amazed about the stuff that Godowill doesn’t break. Many of the mid century brands I mentioned are not marked, I passed up many pieces because I was unsure like a recent very early Iittala vase and ended up being right. Iittala puts a little round red circle sticker with a I on their pieces, but people pick them off. Some of their early pieces are kitschy. The well known pieces they became famous for looks like rain that has frozen on the glass. Love when you put up pics of stuff or groups of stuff your readers can help identify. I learn lots from other readers knowledge too.

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